A Simple Guide to Restoration

Restoring California Native Ecosystems.

Ok, really simple, 4000 plants/acre. Mix shrubs, trees and
perennials that existed on the site or within a mile or two of the
site on the same aspect and soil. Maintain for three years weed
free. (Not one weed, dead or alive.)

Contract should read, weed free with 90% plant survival after
one year, 80% second year, 70% third year. (All they have to be
is
alive, not pretty, but alive.) Monitoring should consist of
confirming species for site, and for three times, once each year,
count live plants, confirm no weeds.(Mowed=weeds, mulch is not a
weed, dead weeds are.) If at the end of three years 70% survival
not achieved, project starts again for areas that failed,
contractor responsible for plants, watering, maintenance, owner
(private or public) is responsible for monitoring three more
years.

Let the contractor figure
out watering, planting and weeding. (Contractor hint, plant
120-150% of needed plants and maintain once every two weeks for
first year, about once a month after.)

Restoration = A planting composed of 100% California native
plants with components from the pioneer, sub-climax and climax
communities. The ecosystem should represent the native appearance
in the 1400's, have no alien, foreign, exotic components present
(i.e. weeds, plastics, fertilizers, soil amendments, etc.) , and
maintained for 1-3 years with no water.

Weeds+Bare soil are suppressed by Native litter(mulch) and
mature native plants. At initial planting the site will look like
a landscape, as it matures it should look and behave like a native
ecosystem with weed suppression and self generation, if you get it
right.

It is very important to understand what is supposed to be
there. Just because the hillside is covered with one kind of
native plant, doesn't mean that is what is supposed be there. Try
to find an old guy (or gal) with no teeth that remembers where
some old pictures are that show what was on the hillsides. In the
following photo the hillside is covered with Chamise, looks like
classic chaparral. Classic chaparral is a stage of chaparral that
has burned too many times, too often. This hillside was covered
with 20 foot high Big Berried Manzanitas, oak and pines in the
1970's, two fires, one in 1979 another in 1985 knocked out all the
native plant species except the crown-sprouters. The is not one
pine or manzanita on the hillside, not one. A walk around the
hillside and neighboring hillsides reveals about 100 species that
were there. Make the plant list what should be there, not what is
there now.

If you want native plants
in
your garden or restoration, kill the weeds.

KILL THE WEEDS!

The site must be maintained until there is canopy closure of
perennial native species with full canopy or appropriately mulched
and about 70% closure. Exotics are an ecological switch and cannot
be allowed.(Johnson and Wedin, 1997; Wilson, 1997) They are like a
bacteria infection in a human body, your body can tolerate some
infection, but even an ingrown toenail can become infected beyond
your body's ability to suppress infection and without antibiotics
(herbicides) you'll die. KILL THE WEEDS!

If there are presently live, perennial native plants covering
more than 60% of the surface area (canopy closure), and climax
species (e.g., oak trees ) are present, no planting is needed.
Weeds should be controlled with herbicides and the
landscape/restoration maintained weed-free until the landscape is
stable, about 3-5 years. On rocky slopes, you may be hard pressed
to find even 60% cover, if there are no weeds, that's normal and
no inputs are needed.

If there are bare areas or weedy areas larger than 30 ft.
(Brush), or 100 ft. (open woodland), plants should be planted to
fill-in these holes, weeds should be controlled with herbicides,
the area mulched, and maintained weed free until canopy closure.
The exceptions are like the rock slope in the picture, seasonally
flooded areas, and vernal pools, bare ground is fine in those
sites, weeds are not. Large quantities of organic matter do not
occur in hillside soils. Amended soil only occurs in some riparian
systems and favors bacterial diseases, not natives(Coleman, et.
al. 1988).

DO NOT AMEND SOIL.

Fertilizers do not occur in native ecosystems.

A change in fertility levels of a few parts per million will
alter the ecosystem . Like a spinning top on a table, who knows
where it will go?(Perry, et. al., 1989; Arnolds, Eef. 1991;
Vitousek, Peter, et. Al. 1997)

DO NOT FERTILIZE.

Mycorrhizal inoculum is not needed nor appropriate for any
site.(Williams and Aldon, 1976;Mitchell and Smith,
1992;Amaranthus,M.P., C.Y. Li and D.A. Perry. Trappe, James.
1988.). Inoculum is a newer version grassing hillsides, both
permanently alter the ecosystem into at best an unstable one, at
worst a weedy mess.

DO NOT USE Mycorrhizal inoculum. Sometimes if a hydroseeded
site has been heavily worked and compacted, specific mycorrhiza
can help, but if you're planting containers, use of mycorrhiza may
be negative instead of positive.

Erosion: Low on a native site, very high on a grassy site,
high
on a bare site! (Patric, 1974)

DO USE THE RIGHT KIND OF
MULCH!

The
plastic tubes that are billed as 'tree
saviors' (or whatever) kill our plants in interior locations. In
others
they alter the plants ecology to where plants, that are never
browsed, are browsed, and, like when drip
is used, the plant's life is dramatically shortened.
After five years the numbers seem to be unsupported. Moreover,
Carey and Robertson(1995) found that
Bluebirds and other birds die in the shelters attracting rodents
that tunnel under, or eat through the plastic and eat the plant.
Take your money and spend it on mulch, maintenance, one to five
really good waterings, and more plants.

Mulch Type

Best used for

Not recommended for

Possible Problems with

Sources of

Life of Mulch

Lawn clippings, Straw, or Hay

compost pile for vegetable garden

any plantings other than
vegetable, it kills natives

many weeds (e.g.,,bind weed,
mustard, bermuda grass), plant
diseases

many

3 months

Manure

Vegetable garden

Any other plantings, it kills
natives

Salt burn

Any Garden center

1-3 months

'Green waste'

Conventional flower beds

interface areas, native
plantings, conifers ,desert plants

weed seeds, shrub and tree seeds

Recycling programs

1-3 years

Arborist's chippings of pine,
oak or natives

native or drought tolerant type
plantings and conifers

conventional flowerbeds,
vegetable gardens, desert plants

few but some tree and shrub seeds

Arborists

5-7 years

Fir bark, Pine bark, Redwood bark

conifers, most native prefer
redwood, most others Ok

conventional flowerbeds, vegetable gardens, desert plants

floats and moves off of site,
doesn't provide full groundcover
so more weeds present

Bulk distributors, Garden centers

7-10 years

Shredded redwood bark
(Shredded cedar is similar)

the best mulch (when combined
with boulders) for coastal and
sierra natives

desert plants, conventional
gardens

no known negative impacts

Bulk distributors

7-10 years

Boulders, rock

Desert plants or combined with
other mulch

areas next to lawn or parking
lots (Ok if too large to easily
move)

vandalism

bulk distributors, some General
Engineering contractors

20+

None

Lawns, walkways, parking lots,
river bottoms, marshes

most native or drought tolerant
sites

topsoil loss, erosion

N/A

generally covered with weeds in
a few months

Plastic

Lawn furniture

plants

shreds, doesn't work, kills the
plants

'home' stores, 'restoration'
suppliers

1-3 years, replaced by weeds

Ok we've given you these basics now make a table with the
square footage of the target as the minimum total. Feed in every
native perennial/shrub/tree that is present on the site or on
nearby sites that represent your site. Do not feed into the table
Baccharis, Senecio, Ericameria, Lotus or whatever other pioneer is
on the site until your numbers are above 60% area coverage
(accounting for possible losses). The table should represent your
'dream' species list of a permanent planting. The more species you
can include the better. After you've figured out your plant list,
add a full overlay of bush Baccharis or whatever start up plant is
native in the area. Most of the coastal areas of California prefer
Baccharis.

Here's an example for a little creek bank. The native cover
target is about 60-70%, with the Baccharis added we project 130%
coverage with a 30% loss, that is canopy closure. Actual area was
about 600 sq. ft.

Trappe, James. 1988, Lessons from Alpine Fungi.
Mycologia,80(1). Presidential address, Mycological Soc. of
America, Ottawa, Ontario,Ca. June 24, 1987 Of the 'Silver Bullet'
of Bioengineered Mycorrhiza "Such nonsense can be perpetrated
only by the ecologicallyignorant, the non-symbiotic Lone Rangers
who, as the non-mycorrhizal annual weed, move in fast to get the
most. Unfortunately, it maybe believed by unsophisticated readers,
of which there are many. "